Sustainability Field Days

Events that bring Rabobank’s clients and partners together at a model farm to learn about best practices in the rural environment.

In order to present best social and environmental practices in the scenario they will be applied in, Rabobank also organizes a series of Sustainability Field Days. At these events our clients and partners are invited to a client’s farm, where social and environmental standards are applied, catering to the welfare of employees and conserving the environment.

These Sustainability Field Days are held in the communities where we operate now in Brazil, and the farers in the region get together and can:

Swap ideas on implementing best practices locally;

Have personal contact with our client, who has carried out the improvements on their farm;

Ask our local Social and Environmental Responsibility team questions.

At the event clients get the Manual of Best Social and Environmental Practices in Agribusiness and then visit the farm’s facilities to see the standards in practice, instructed by our Social and Environmental Responsibility team.

We have held twelve Field Days since 2008 and the results have always been very positive, satisfying all the guests. The cities where we held the Sustainability Field Days were: Barreiras, Araçatuba, Varginha, Patos, Uberlândia, Rio Verde, Chapadão do Sul, Lucas do Rio Verde, Rondonópolis, Tangará da Serra, and Ribeirão Preto.

Rabobank Group is a Netherlands based, international financial services provider operating on the basis of co-operative principles with a predominant focus on providing allfinance services in the domestic market. Internationally the Group's focus is on food and agriculture. In line with its co-operative roots, Rabobank Group is a co-operative bank, comprised of independent local Rabobanks, plus their central organisation Rabobank Nederland and its (international) subsidiaries. The organisation has almost 60,000 employees (fte) worldwide and operates in 48 countries.

Rabobank Group has the highest credit rating of all privately owned banks, awarded by international rating agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Fitch and DBRS. In terms of Tier I capital, the organisation is among the top 30 largest financial institutions in the world. Total assets amount to EUR 665 billion and net profit amounts to EUR 1.9 billion (2011-I).